Copycat Recipe: Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli for the Crock Pot

This hearty soup, similar to the Pasta e Fagioli you’d find at Olive Garden, makes a batch large enough to feed a crowd. If you have a large Crock Pot, you can set it to go in the morning and have an easy meal when you come home in the evening.

Brown ground beef in a skillet. Drain fat from ground beef and add to a large crock pot with everything except the tortellini. Cook in a crock pot on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

During the last 30 minutes on high or 1 hour on low, add pasta (adding it sooner will cause pasta to get mushy). Cook until pasta is heated through.

Variations: I cooked my pasta e fagioli in a big stock pot on simmer for a couple of hours instead of using a Crock Pot. The recipe above made a HUGE batch. I think we could have halved it and still had plenty to eat. Next time I make it I am going to freeze half of it before adding the tortellini.

Comments

I made this last night for supper and it was probably the first copy cat recipe that I have used that tastes just like the original. We live in Newfoundland, Canada and we don’t have an Olive Garden here so I am in a bit of withdrawal! haha I used small bowtie pasta instead of the tortellini and I used 4 cheese pasta sauce in place of the spaghetti sauce. It was amazing! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!

Made this soup in my crock pot and it was amazing! Need to use my stock pot next time, it makes alot, crockpot was really not big enough. I used egg noodles and cooked them separately and added just before serving. Freezer the rest of the soup without add the pasta. This is a keeper!!

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it calls for tortellini from the freezer section–so did you defrost the pasta before adding it at the end? If not, was the frozen pasta cooked enough after only 1 hour?

I have made this several times now. I cook my pasta separate as it does not seem to freeze well, and there is plenty left to freeze for another meal. I just add fresh pasta to my bowl and cover with soup! Everyone loves it!